The Wrong Cup
by A Diamond in the Rough
Summary: Marcellus accidentally gives Marcia his potion of eternal life when he invites her to tea. Marcia is furious. Enough said. Will be updated weekly. Please please review :D :P Shall go up to 25 chaps precisely. I have read nothing after Syren. Don't blame me.
1. Chapter 1

That morning Marcia Overstrand, ExtraOrdinary Wizard, had received an invitation to visit Marcellus Pye for tea in his house on Snake Slipway. She decided to go; her apprentice, Septimus Heap, was over at the Palace visiting his sister, the Princess.

* * *

Marcellus Pye had indeed made a wonderful discovery. He had just discovered that lead melted with gold and a **safecharm** yielded **SpiritGold.** It was a thing Marcellus had only just discovered; his invitation to Marcia had little to do with tea. Of course, there _would _be tea, but nothing else. Another thing had come to strike him recently. He remembered that five hundred years after drinking the Potion of Eternal Life, memory began to become fuzzy. He decided to drink a vial of the Potion in his tea; that would stall it for another hundred years at the least. He looked at the two cups of tea he had just set out on a table with a plate of biscuits. In his cupboard he had seven vials of the potion. He poured one into his cup and then collected seven nuggets of **SpiritGold **and went off to get the special Heating Charm he had used.

At three precisely, Marcia knocked on the door. He showed her in-_oh, bother, he'd forgotten the Heater Igniter. _

_"_Marcia," he said, "sit down at the table. I shan't be long. I had an assortment of important things I had to show you and I've forgotten one in the cellar."

"All right."

"Get started on the tea without me if you like."

And with that he went off.

Marcia did not intend to drink the tea-it was not good manners not to wait. But she was terribly thirsty, so she decided to drink some of her tea. She picked up the cup and took two large sips.

At once a very strange feeling stole over her. She felt suddenly very lightheaded and felt like slumping over.

Then the feeling passed. She sat up and looked suspiciously at the tea.

Nothing seemed amiss.

Then she caught sight of herself in the glass hanging opposite her.

She looked different somehow.

Her hair was straighter, her e yes slightly wider. And her face was smoother and less thin. What had just happened? She cringed at the possibility of what she dreaded.

Had she just...

Then the realization came to her. She had just become immortal.

She opened her mouth in horror.

And screamed.


	2. Marcia's Plan

Marcellus rushed upstairs at the sound of the scream, wondering if a mouse had crossed the sitting room. When he reached his sitting room, however, he was assailed by something purple and very angry.

"You-"

_Slap. _

"Are the most idiotic-"

_Sock. _

_"Imbecile I have ever had the misfortune-"_

_Punch. _

_"_To meet, Marcellus-"

_Swat. _

_"PYE!"_

_"Ow, ow, OW!" _yelled Marcellus, backing away. Marcia did not stay where she was but followed him.

"What have you DONE!" she shrieked. Marcellus covered his ears.

It was then that he noticed something odd about Marcia. It was the fact that she suddenly looked...younger. In dread he glanced over at the table to see his cup half-empty and a chair upturned on the floor.

"Tell me it's not permanent," said Marcia, pleadingly. "Please."

"It isn't," he said reluctantly. Marcia turned and ran out the door.

* * *

Marcia knew that once wizards became immortal, they could not die naturally nor be killed. Her only hope was that it was not yet too late for her; she knew a spell that had once been used by an immortal wizard to die; the **Release of Life. **She penned a hurried note to Septimus and put her Amulet into it. She cursed Marcellus at every second. Why?


	3. Because of the Kettle

Marcia made her way up to the Pyramid Library. She felt sick to the stomach about what she was about to do; but she knew that if she did not succeed, she would spend the rest of eternity regretting it. Marcia began the seventy word long **Release on Life. **

* * *

When Septimus Heap returned to the Wizard Tower, he was in highest spirits. His friend, Beetle, had showed up at the Palace and he and Beetle and Jenna had all played Village Chief. He saw at once a note on the Ouija table, which he picked up.

_Dear Septimus, _

_By the time you read this, I will have passed on. That blasted idiot Marcellus Pye gave me his potion of immortality and I knew I could not bear to live for ever. So I used the Release on Life. In this note I enclose the Akhu Amulet. _

_You are, Septimus, the ExtraOrdinary Wizard. _

_Use it well. _

_Marcia. _

Septimus dropped the note and raced upstairs. Behind her desk sat Marcia, drooped limply across the arm of her chair. His heart cold, Septimus lifted her so that she faced him. Her eyes were closed, and Septimus could not **Feel **a human heartbeat.

* * *

Two hours later in the Sick Bay, Septimus stepped in and looked sadly at Marcia.

The Akhu Amulet now sparkled at his neck. The Sick Bay Wizard had determined that Marcia was somehow still alive; her heart was not beating but her blood, somehow, was still flowing.

"How is she?" he said to the Wizard.

"No idea," said the Wizard. "Nothing we can do can bring her around. I'm sorry, Apprentice."

Septimus left the sick bay and then walked down the stairs, not even bothering to set them in motion. When he got out of the Tower and onto Wizard way, he found his feet leading him towards Snake Slipway. He knocked on Marcellus's door, and when Marcellus opened it, he gasped.

"Septimus...what..."

"Marcia used the Release on Life," said Septimus, in whose eyes tears were starting.

Marcellus buried his head in his hands. "So she is dead, then."

"No...her heart is stopped but she is still alive, somehow. Is there anything you can do, Marcellus? Physik, maybe?"

"I can try," said Marcellus.

* * *

Within ten minutes both of them were back up at the Sick Bay. Marcellus looked at Marcia, who was not Marcia when stilled and cold like she was now. He lifted one of the pale hands from the bedspread and spoke quietly; so softly, in fact, that not even he could hear what he said.

He sat in silence for four minutes, and then-

"Her heart is beating," said Marcellus, with a sigh of relief. "Oh, my god. What an idiot I am! She could have died."

"So you didn't give it to her on purpose?" asked Septimus.

"No. I'd poured that cup for myself. But she drank it by mistake."

"So will she be...immortal, now?" said Septimus, noticing how much younger Marcia looked now.

"Yes," said Marcellus regretfully.

Septimus left the room while Marcellus sat beside Marcia. But he did not close the door before he saw Marcellus press Marcia's hand to his lips.

* * *

Marcia's eyes flew open. She was in utter darkness.

Where was she?

She sat up. She felt strangely lightheaded, and one of her hands seemed to be caught in something...someone else's hand? _Septimus, _she thought. He must have fallen asleep while sitting by her. At her neck she felt an odd emptiness; the absence of the Amulet. She sighed at the thought of having to take it back again.

And why on earth had the Release failed? She groaned at the thought of the endless years before her, watching Septimus and Jenna age and die...oh, God! She would have to watch Septimus die!

When that thought hit her, she fell back onto her pillow in despair. She guessed where she was; in the Sick Bay. But she suddenly realized that the hand holding hers was rougher and larger than Septimus's. In horror, she pulled hers away.

"Marcellus PYE!"

A light flickered beside her and she saw that it was indeed Marcellus.

"What the devil do YOU think you are doing here?" she said furiously.

"Keeping watch," he said. "Why, Marcia? Why did you use the Release?"

"You know why," she snapped. "I had no choice, Marcellus. You were a fool! And now look! I am doomed to eternal life!"

She buried her face in her hands very much as Marcellus had earlier.

"Marcia," he said gently, "it is not so very bad as all that."

"It is," she said. "For heaven's sake! I am thirty-five, Marcellus. I should have lived for perhaps thirty more years...not eternity!"

"I am so sorry, Marcia," said Marcellus. "I am so, so, so sorry. I was not trying to keep you alive, I only meant to restore my own memory."

Marcia sighed. And then-to Marcellus's shock and her own horror-she burst into tears. Marcellus took her hand again and was not repulsed.

"Why did the Release not work?" she sobbed. "It has never _not _worked in all the years since it was created. Why did it not work?"

"You were already immortal then, Marcia," he said. "From the moment you drank the tea, that was it. There was no going back."

"What did you do?" asked Marcia. "How could you bear to see everyone you loved die and know that you never would?"

"I...I aged, Marcia. That was why I could bear it. You recall that the Potion was faulty at the time I drank it."

"And you got Septimus to make it again for you," she said.

"Yes." said Marcellus.

"Marcellus?"

"Yes, Marcia?"

"Why are _you _here, of all people? And I know for a fact that the Release stops the heart-that's how it works."

"Er...said Marcellus awkwardly, "Septimus got me to bring you back."

"And why did you?" asked Marcia, whose voice had stopped shaking and was once more firm.

"For Septimus," said Marcellus. The real reason he intended to keep to himself, no matter what.

"And _how _did you bring me back?"

"I spoke to your heart," he said, even more awkwardly.

"You did _what, _Marcellus? I really haven't the time for jokes. Heart-Speaking doesn't exist and _all _wizards know that."

"The Alchemists developed the art, Marcia. As you know most of them also practiced **Physik. **Well...I spoke to your heart. I told it all it had to lose and what I-what _we _would all have to lose if you...died."

"And then?" said Marcia, who wondered why even the management of her own heart was being taken out of her hands.

"I made it _want _to beat."

"But a heart doesn't have its own mind, Marcellus."

"True. A heart does not have its own mind," said Marcellus. "But Marcia, _you _have your own mind."

"What are you getting at?" she said suspiciously, pulling her hand free and crossing her arms.

"Remember, Marcia. What made you want to come back?"

Marcia was getting more than a little impatient. True, Marcellus Pye had saved her life. But then again, if he hadn't given her the potion it would never have needed saving.

She gave an exclamation. She had a very classically Marcia-ish idea of how to get Marcellus to stop bothering her.

"Oh, Marcellus! I know what it was!" She turned to face him with triumph in her eyes.

"What?" asked Marcellus eagerly-a little _too _eagerly, Marcia thought.

"I left the kettle boiling this morning and never took it off! I knew I'd forgotten something!"

Marcellus made a face. Alchemists know when to give up.


End file.
